Search engines are becoming an increasingly important way of traversing the vast quantity of information, such as web sites and documents, available on the internet today. Conventional search engine technologies, such as those offered by MSN, Google, and Yahoo, are often used to perform general, “horizontal” web-searches of the broad web. More recently, in response to users' desire to perform tailored searches and receive more precise results, search engines have begun offering the option of performing “vertical” web-searches over defined portions of the web. For example, users can choose to search a “shopping” vertical to locate items being sold on the web. Users may choose to search the web for only news-related items by using a “news” search vertical. And, users may wish to only search for images relevant to a search query by using an “images” search vertical. These search verticals allow users to specify a particular type of search rather than simply entering a general web-search query into a general horizontal search engine.
Today, users wishing to perform vertical searches must use a limited number of pre-defined search verticals currently available on the web. The limited number of search verticals currently available may not allow a user to perform a particular type of tailored search over a desired portion of the web. For example, a user wishing to only search scholarly health articles on the web may not have access to a search vertical designed to perform such searches. Users may choose to design their own search verticals or use search verticals that have been authored by others. Such search verticals would provide an invaluable resource to horizontal search engines designed to search the broad web if these search engines could access these verticals to enhance general web-search queries.
Users may not be aware of particular user-created search verticals that could potentially provide precise search results to a general search query. For example, a user searching for recipes may not know to search a user-created recipe vertical and may simply enter the query into a general search engine. If a general search engine had the ability to access these user-created search verticals, the accuracy and precision of general web-search queries could be greatly enhanced. In addition, if these user-created search verticals could be improved by rewarding search vertical authors whose verticals are widely used, the quality of general web-search results could also be greatly enhanced. A way is needed to improve general web-searches by taking advantage of user-created search verticals and by rewarding search vertical authors who create high-quality search verticals.